For whatever reasons..thou shalt

Monday April 14, 2008 The Star

Thou shalt not steal -- even for thy kid’s birthday

By CECIL FUNG

KUALA LUMPUR: Being short on money, a desperate father did the only thing he could think of to give his child a birthday present – steal. However, the 44-year-old man, a member of a film crew, was not lucky enough to get away with the act.

Security guards caught him when he exited a popular departmental store here without paying for the children’s clothing, which were worth RM133.70. On Monday, Amarjit Singh Jasmail Singh pleaded guilty to committing the shoplifting offence.

He admitted that he stole the items from the Jusco outlet in MidValley Megamall around 4pm on March 6. In mitigation, counsel Wan Ahmad Wan Omar asked for a reduced sentence saying his client did not have a lot of income.

“He committed the offence because he wanted to get a gift for his child’s birthday,” he said.
Magistrate Maimoonah Aid sentenced Amarjit Singh to a day’s jail and fined him RM800.

The fine was paid.

>>>>>>

This reminds me of a little incident happened to me about two years ago. I was at the Gi@nt Superm@rket. After paying, I slowly walked passed the five feet tall detector thingy and suddenly the alarm triggered. A woman with her 2 year old kid also walked out during the same time as mine.

Immediately the security lady stopped me and inspected me. While the women, dengan selambernyer, squated down just a few inches beside me ( I was standing with my hands spread out ) pretending to put on her baby shoes. At first, I was angry and puzzled. Then, I looked at the woman, in fact a few people around there was looking at the woman, even the security, I think, was aware of her. The shoes that was being put on is new. I looked at my other half. He gave me the just-stay-relax look and glanced at the woman.

And I thought, okayyyy..i am the scapegoat here, treated like a criminal and should I feel sorry for her?. I could have demand for explanations and make a request to checkout the cctv of what had actually happened. But, looking at the little kid, I decided to keep quiet and let them inspected me for just a merely 2 minutes. By the time we finished, the woman ..kapish..gone.

But then again, she looked like she is an expert, already 'teaching' the kid vices 101, that if, the kid is hers.

And as per the story above. I don’t know..mix feelings..felt sorry for the daddy, assuming his kid wanted the stuff so much that he can ill afford it and his intention was to make the kid happy. And usually..usually if you’re not a professional thief, you will surely get caught. Obviously, he is stupid (maybe out of preassure). But whatever the reasons are, stealing is not a choice, don’t even start. Hopefully, he learnt his lesson and hopefully he didn’t get into trouble out of that rm800 that was being paid.

As for robin hood…err..i like him hehe ( from the movie lah )

PEACE